The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-05-30
HOTELS FOR WOMEN.
Long Felt neutrality-suspicious. of n Young
Woman Who Supports Herself

LOng-Feit Want-Experiences of a Young
Woman Who Supports Herself
New York Correspondence Philadelphia Record.
/ think it is high time to provide for the WON
en- in the matter of hotels [ do not agree with
those people who say that ladies unaccompaned
by gentlemen cannot get accommodations at
frstclass hotels But hotel for women only
is something that should be provided. The sort
of women's hotel that is wanted in New York is
not so much for transient visitors for women
who are engaged In fairly well paying business.
Not the girls who earn So or Sc ~ week-they
could not afford to pay the price of good hotel
accnmmodations-out young women who earn
from 81. 900 to 81 600 year, and who want some
thing different from the average boarding house.
The Stewart hotel, if it hadn't had so many re-
strictIons, would have been just the thing but
no self-respectlng woman could have gone there
upon the terms that Judge Hilton made a Deces-
sity to her entrance
was talking the other day with a young
woman who has beer earning her own living IN
New \ ork for some six or eight years past, and
who makes. L suppose, from $25 to $40 week.
She Is engaged In sort of free-lance literary
work, and she enjoys her emancipation about as
much any one / ever knew She is lady bv
birth and education. and she could live at home
If she were content to lead monotonous home
life; but knowing her own ability to get along
she burned her ships behind her. left her family
who, though Americans, made their nome in
Italy, and came to this country. | imagine she
had pretty hard time of 1t when she began to
do for herself but by perseverance and ability
she has got along very we'll. She told me in this
conversation that she had tried every manner of
and that she hadn't found the right thing yet
She had lived in hotels, lodging houses,
studios, bouardng houses: Christian homes,
and, In fact, everything that the city affords but
found them all inadequate to her needs; and vet
she didn't ask for great deal She simply
wanted comfort, cleanliness and independence
She is strongly in favor of hotel for women
where they pay so much week. In the womens
apartment-house scheme recently suggested, she
not interested, because she thinks that
there are very few women who would care to
ia "a n 90 tO he of f1r-
nishing it on the uncertainty of their positions
AS she says Of herself she might go on for years
doing well, if not better than at present, and
then again every source of revenue might be cut
of at a moments notice, and she thinks this is
the case with most women. They can't look
very far ahead. That is why she prefers the
hotel arrangement. She says. for example that
she could afford to pay $l2 or $l5 week for her
board and lodging and that there are great
could do the same thing; but they wouldn't
wish to have the womens hotel re-
garded as charitable institution.
would they wish any restrictions on their indie
pendence. When they should apply for
rooms they might give their references. and if
satisfactory be allowed to come in, and if, after
getting in, they didn't behave themselves
they should be put OUT but she doesn't believe
that they should DE treated suspicious charac-
tiers unless they should do something to excite
suspicion. Her objection to the Christian homes"
where she has been is. aside from the poor food
and no fires in winter, the restrictions to
latch keys She contends that if be
capable OF earning her own living ana OF taxing
of herself during the day she IS certainly
able to take care of herself at night, and if she
can't be trusted to with friend to the thea
ter, or to have plate of oysters after the per-
formance with a party of friends. she had better
give up business and go home and live on her fam
lily, if she have one. Indiscrminate oyster sup
pers with casual acquantances she frowns upon,
but the visiting of reputable theaters il; the
pany of old friends she argues is the of any
woman with a of propriety. Her fear
about the womens hotel is that it would be
Quoted on the spying principle and, in that case,
believe, going to write up her experiences in the
differen: houses where she has lived in New
York for one of the leading magazines, and I
will venture to say, from what l know of her
style, it will be an amusing as we'll as an inter-
firp